Lately, I am reminded about Blob. The reason I am reminded of him is this: He was a forum member in good standing, and aside from conflicts with a few members, was pretty well liked on the board as a whole. On certain topics, he would uncharacteristically post in a very abrasive, offensive way. Even though many might have agreed with his actual opinion, it was the way he presented it that caused a lot of unnecessary tension and drama. I and other mods warned him a few times. And other forum members would try to explain that it wasn't what he was saying, but rather how he was saying it. Every time anyone, whether a mod or not, would bring those kinds of things up, rather than take it to heart, he would get defensive and say the problem was with the rest of the forum and not him. I generally find that when a big enough group of people are coming to someone and saying there is a problem with what the person is doing, it's a good opportunity to take a step back and do some serious self-reflection. Maybe the majority is genuinely wrong. But then again, if a big enough group of people are observing the same behavior and finding it offensive, it could be an opportunity to realize that even if the person has no ill ententions, his behavior is still inadvertently creating ill will. After recognzing that, the person can then take the opportunity to change--not because they necessarily are convinced that they are "wrong," but simply because it's best for the sake of getting along and not creating unnecessary conflict (or, to put it another way, because it's the polite thing to do). Blob, unfortunately, didn't figure that out. Although he was among friends, he got defensive, threw a tantrum and accused everyone else of attacking him, and just decided to leave.
I'm not saying anyone involved in this discuss has to do anything in particular. I'm just making some observations. Maybe they're valid. Maybe not. But those are my observations, and some of them just may apply.